The County of Ventura today announced a new goal of providing school employees with their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of March, which is significantly sooner than had originally been anticipated. This will be accomplished by working with local health care providers to administer vaccinations to educators in addition to using the County’s existing vaccination infrastructure.

“We are very gratified to see that the people who work in our schools are receiving high priority for vaccinations in Ventura County,” said Dr. Cesar Morales, Deputy Superintendent for the Ventura County Office of Education. “A fully functioning school system is one of the keys to getting our lives back to normal. The sooner we can get school employees vaccinated, the sooner we will be able to bring all of our students back to the classroom,” he said.

Effective immediately, school employees are eligible to make vaccination appointments on the County’s website at www.venturacountyrecovers.org/vaccine-information. Specifics on the vaccinations that will be administered separately by health care providers are still being finalized. School administrators will be sharing the details directly with their employees as they become available.

School employees will need to show proof of employment, such as a pay stub, in order to receive their vaccinations. Relatives of school employees and school volunteers are not eligible to be vaccinated at this time. It’s also important that school employees only make one single vaccination appointment each. Making multiple appointments will unfairly take a slot away from someone else who could use it.

For the latest information on COVID-19 and Ventura County schools, please visit www.vcoe.org/covid-19.